Here’s why Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is...

3of3Texas Agriculture Comissioner Sid Miller in his offices in Austin Texas, Noverber 21, 2016.Photo: Spencer Selvidge for the San Antonio Express-News / Spencer Selvidge for the San Antonio Express-News

AUSTIN — Republican Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller has the endorsements of President Donald Trump and the tea party and the Church of God in Christ PAC as he seeks re-election this fall after his first term.

But three major groups that work more closely with Miller — the Texas Farm Bureau, the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and the Texas Food and Fuel Association — are endorsing neither Miller nor Democratic challenger Kim Olson, who has raised substantially more campaign cash than the incumbent.

Culture wars and red-meat politics have dominated much of the contest, which pits Miller, a former rodeo cowboy against Olson, a retired Air Force colonel who stresses that “pissed-off women and enlightened men” can change the direction of the country come November.

Most states have governors appoint a leader for the department of agriculture. Not Texas. The $140,000/year state job is elected here and throughout the deep south.

The position is largely to promote local products like cattle and cotton. But the job also calls for a consumer watchdog making sure people get their money’s worth when they buy Texas products, and Miller’s approach to that role is part of his problem.

“We’re just fed up with the way things were going,” said Paul Hardin, president of the Texas Food and Fuel Association that speaks for about 800 companies, mostly gas stations with convenience stores. The group endorsed Miller’s opponent in the Republican primary election, which “put a strain on an already strained relationship,” Hardin said.

Since then, the department has reached out to work more closely with the group. In explaining the non-endorsement thus far, Hardin offered: “We have to work with whatever administration is there.” Hardin said it was unknown whether the group’s board will decide to offer an endorsement when the group meets next in late October, days before the election.

Miller and the group have been at odds over fuel pump inspections required by the department. An uptick in inspections had left gas stations feeling picked-on although in the vast majority cases, the tests found stores had been in compliance, said Hardin. The group complained to the Texas Legislature, which passed a law to require three complaints to trigger an inspection by a state-licensed company working as an agent of the department. However, Miller required that gas stations pay for the inspection since it would not be performed directly by the department.

Miller’s campaign declined to comment on the department’s fuel pump inspections and other issues frustrating agricultural industries, but he has said the law passed is akin to having a “fox guard the henhouse” and complained the law allows gas stations to “cheat at least three people” before the the state can fine them. Hardin says anyone can file a complaint against a gas station without even proving they bought gas there, which could allow competitors to call in false reports that spur additional pump inspections and fees.

Then there is Miller’s war with barbecue restaurant owners. The Department of Agriculture is slapping fines on restaurants for failing to register their scales weighing everything from brisket to yogurt. Miller required restaurants to pay a yearly $35 fee for each scale. Miller also ordered strict adherence to a long-ignored law requiring the scales to be visible to customers, causing some restaurants to undergo costly renovations or change kitchen layouts.

The Texas Legislature passed a law telling Miller to exempt barbecue restaurants and other establishments selling food to-go. But Miller changed nothing, saying that by his interpretation of the new law, his scale enforcement operation complies with it. Miller’s enforcement could be illegal, according to an opinion from the Texas attorney general. Miller has persisted, with his agency spokesman saying he has no plans to stop protecting consumers.

The Texas Farm Bureau is also staying out of the race. The group representing some 519,000 families largely of farmers and ranchers made endorsements in more than 100 races in the 2014 and 2018 general elections, but has not made an endorsement in the Agriculture Commissioner’s race this fall, or in the primary.

“Our board of directors felt that it was in the best interest of our members not to make an endorsement at this time. It’s just better for us and our interests to remain neutral,” said farm bureau spokesman Gene Hall.

Miller upset ranchers this summer when, amid a rash of deadly fever tick infestations, he shut down fever spray box operations citing cattle deaths from overexposure to a pesticide. Ranchers say that no cattle have died due to toxicity and closing the spray box operations only increased the risk of fever ticks. Miller has since walked his opposition back and temporarily reopened the spray boxes.

Miller has said ranchers complained to him that the strong chemicals were being used in violation of the label, essentially forcing cattle into a gas chamber.

Olson, a retired lieutenant colonel, farmer and beekeeper, said Miller fails to work well with others and manufactures problems.

“You create the emergency and then you come over here and you go and solve it. That’s not what politicians are supposed to do, that’s not what leaders of a half-billion-dollar agency are supposed to do. You’re supposed to foresee things and you’re supposed to get in front of stuff.”

Olson doesn’t have a problem with how barbecue restaurants weigh meat and said she trusts that customers who feel like they’ve been shorted goods like brisket or gasoline will make it known by complaining on business rating websites like Yelp.

She argues that Texas has bigger issues to worry about. There’s providing broadband internet in rural Texas which can help connect doctors to patients without a nearby hospital, addressing immigration that fuels employment on farm land and figuring out how to make sure poor children aren’t going to bed hungry.

Olson said she takes it as good news that the major agricultural groups are skipping on endorsements in her race, even though it means they have decided they won’t back her either.

“I believe it’s a veiled endorsement for me,” she said.

Olson’s campaign raised five-times as much money as Miller has in the last three months. From July to September 27, Olson pulled in $131,000 from at least 900 people for the final leg of the race, a show of grassroots support while Miller raised $25,00 mainly from a handful of big donors. In total, Olson has more money to use — about $162,000 — leading up to election day.

On the campaign trail, Olson focuses on the direction of the country. She has talked about dreams of knitting a pink hat for a granddaughter she would take to women’s marches and how women are stepping up for high-profile elected positions. She talks about how students touched by the slew of school shootings are becoming politically active and how people need to vote for leaders who will support people in the military, like her son.

“This election is a pivotal moment. It’s not a midterm, it’s a turning point in our nation’s history. Is it not?” she said.

While Miller has had few public campaign events, he peppers his 750,000 followers on Facebook with memes making fun of NFL football players who kneel during the national anthem, reminds voters he’s “Trump’s man in Texas” and touches on hot button issues. Miller is also known for posting fake news stories on Facebook, and once shared a Twitter message calling Hillary Clinton a vulgar word.

Andrea Zelinski is a state bureau reporter focusing on education, politics, social issues and the courts. She previously covered the Tennessee legislature and local education for the Nashville Scene where she was news editor. She also wrote for the Nashville Post, the now defunct Nashville City Paper and TNReport news service, covered the Illinois statehouse and reported for the Associated Press and Small Newspaper Group. A Chicago-area native, she has a master’s degree in Public Affairs Reporting from the University of Illinois at Springfield and earned her undergraduate degree at Northeastern Illinois University.